Recent Newspaper & Online Columns by Kate Scannell MD

Kate Scannell, MD, Syndicated columnist
First published in print: 11/16/2014

In my medical practice, patients often asked what they could do in hopes of attaining long lives. But the funny thing was, no one wanted to accomplish that if it required actual aging -- which it most certainly did. Like Oscar Wilde's fictional character Dorian Gray, they hoped to pass through time without time passing through them, affecting their bodies and health, stealing their youth.

But, looking at the proverbial big picture, it's quite evident that "getting older" is what we are, indeed, doing. New research released last month by the National Center for Health Statistics confirms that the average life expectancy -- the expected average number of years of life remaining -- continues to lengthen for people in the U.S. (more…)

Journalist Rebecca Skloot’s new book is a gripping read that embodies all abstractions about research ethics in a compelling tale about Henrietta Lacks – a woman whose microscopic cancerous cells shook the world’s medical establishment in 1951.